1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to partially deactivated metal catalysts useful for modifying structures of nanomaterials (e.g., nanotubes) and a method for preparing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal particles with nano size which are well known to specific electrical, optical and magnetic properties distinguishable from those of bulk nanoparticles, are recently growing interest in a variety of applications. Owing to composition of components having different nano size, metal nanoparticles show partially different chemical activities, therefore, can be used in combination with modern science and technologies in many different fields. Such metal nanoparticles can be used as catalysts for preparation of nanomaterials. Under this circumstance, a great deal of research and investigations about metal nanoparticles are presently underway all over the world.
The metal nanoparticles used in preparing nanomaterials are closely associated with structures and characteristics of the resultant nanomaterials. Accordingly, in order to obtain the prepared nanomaterial having a desired structure and characteristics, an research for controlling the structure and characteristics of a metal catalyst is necessary. At present, there is difficulty in preparation of nanoparticle catalyst having desired structures and/or characteristics and there has been little progress on investigations into development thereof. Application of recent techniques such as electron beam lithography, micro contact printing, shadow masking, etc. can somewhat control an alignment of nanoparticles and/or sizes of catalyst nanoparticles, however, these techniques require high cost leading to an obstacle in preparing commercially available products and have a problem of being only used for very small substrates.
Another conventional method using block copolymer micelles to prepare a metal catalyst having a controlled uniform size, in which nanoparticles are aligned in a wide area at a uniform interval, has been proposed. However, there has been little attempt to control the structure or chemical activity of each catalyst particle with nano-size.